ByAmandaPosted at 5:21 pm

Notice that Scott “Still hasn’t quite gotten” Rolen–he of the .179 OBP–has been replaced in the clean-up spot tonight.

Instead, playing the role of Joey-Votto-shield will be…Brandon Phillips? He of the .231 OBP and ouchie hamstring? That’s sure to put the fear into ’em.

Replacing Phillips in the lead-off spot is Zack Cozart, which is a move I can entirely get behind. Baker can occasionally *do* sensible things; he just can’t ever *say* them. Hopefully the stress doesn’t get to young Cozart. It can be a lot of pressure to be the first guy left on base.

Mat Latos takes the mound for the Reds tonight, looking to bring down that 5.59 ERA. While that number certainly belies the skill of Mat Latos (but not the skill of Matt Belisle), it occurs to me that at this point in the season it’s pretty impressive that it’s almost the highest ERA that the Reds’ pitchers have. Ah, I remember those gaudy Eric Milton days, back when triple digit ERAs to start the season would only cost you a nickel. Nowadays, pitchers can’t even afford both Ts for their names. It’s a crying shame, I tell you!

Can you tell I’ve just woken up from a nap? The verbal meandering is getting entirely out of hand. And so is the Cardinals’ early season hot streak. Let’s see what our Cincinnati boys can do about that tonight.

Just did the no-screen-time thing as part of the bedtime routine and am happy to see that things have calmed down a little while we were busy drinking peppermint tea. Reds scored and Latos is still in…even had a perfect inning.

Tomorrow morning I’m helping out with spring picture day at the local elementary school. Then, there’s a keg tapping event happening over lunch at my favorite pub. Then, my favorite (for some reason) team will be on t.v., and I’ll actually be at home to watch it.

Self-employment is da bomb, if I can ever find time to actually make money.

The trick for me is to remember how to enjoy making fun of my terrible, terrible team. I think it was maybe more fun when it wasn’t such an expensive team, or such a team that *should* be good. I mean, a lot of people have high expectations for the Dunn/Kearns years, but really, looking back, I think everyone can agree that Wily Mo Pena was never really going to be a bearer of a pennant.

There was a time, last season I think, when I had a notion that Dusty Baker should be required to run all his managerial decisions pasty any row of Reds fan in the stadium to see what they think. If every single one of them, even the drunk girl, is against the idea, he shouldn’t be allowed to do it.

It’s certainly to the Reds disadvantage that they’re running so frequently in to the Cards when they’re in buzzsaw mode. But if it can be the kick in the pants to wake this organization up, maybe it’ll turn out to be a good thing.

I’d prefer to fail fast and make the necessary adjustments than have another just-a-little-too-successful-to-really-change-anything season.